Gareth Bale's proposed transfer to Real Madrid for £100 million is a 'joke' and 'crazy', says Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has branded Real Madrid’s £100 million-plus pursuit of Gareth
Bale as "crazy" and a "joke", declaring he would only spend money "in the
right way" during the transfer window.

Money matters: Tottenham are asking for £105 million for Gareth BalePhoto: PA

By Ben Rumsby

2:49PM BST 02 Aug 2013

Arsenal manager Wenger claimed the proposed world-record move of Bale from Tottenham made a mockery of the new era of Financial Fair Play and defended his own failure to use the funds available to him so far this summer.

Wenger is said to be sitting on a £70m transfer kitty but his attempts to spend it have yet to bear fruit, although he revealed he was still trying to signing Luis Suarez after having a £40,000,001 bid rejected by Liverpool.

That would represent a huge club record for Arsenal but it would still be dwarfed by the fee being discussed for Spurs star Bale, whose agent, Jonathan Barnes, confirmed that the winger did not travel to Monaco on Friday with the rest of the Spurs squad to finalise his move to Real Madrid.

"It's quite amazing that when Financial Fair Play comes in, the football world has gone completely crazy," Wenger said, claiming it made a "joke" of the new cost controls.

"You wonder what kind of impact and effect it has, Financial Fair Play, on the football world because it looks like it has made everybody worse than before."

Wenger admitted he was under pressure himself to spend big this summer. "If you say we're under pressure to spend money, yes we are," he said.

"But I feel more under pressure to spend the money in the right way and that's what I'll try to do."

Insisting he was "confident" of doing so before the transfer window closes, he added: "We want to spend it if it strengthens our team. Just spending the money's not a quality.

"Spending the money, buying the right players, that's a quality, of course.

"If you can give me names who are better than the players we have compared to the players we have, I am ready to talk about it."

One of those appears to be Suarez, of whom Wenger was reluctant to discuss in terms of an improved bid.

He said: "I don't want to speak about Suarez because that's between Liverpool and Arsenal and we will completely respect what Liverpool wants to do and we want to do that, if it's feasible, in an amicable way."

And the Frenchman had a warning for the controversial striker, who has racked up long bans for racially abusing and biting opponents.

"Look, we have values that we want our players to respect," he said. "No matter where they come from, we will, of course, be very touchy on that.

"This club has built a reputation, not only during my period here but over 130 years and the values that are very important for this club have to be respected by every player."

Wenger was speaking ahead of this weekend's Emirates Cup, which will see Arsenal compete alongside Napoli, Porto and Galatasaray during a two-day tournament on home turf.

The mini-tournament is unlikely to feature Jack Wilshere, who Wenger said "was not completely 100 per cent" as the midfielder continued his recovery from knee and ankle problems.